Transcript of "Expanding Opportunity for All: Responding to the Situatedness of Marginalized Populations "

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Expanding Opportunity for All: Responding to the Situatedness of Marginalized Populations john a. powell Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation Symposium on Race April 14, 2009

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Presentation Overview <ul><li>Race as a dimension of diversity </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Race is a social space </li></ul></ul><ul><li>How people are situated </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Introduction to structural racialization </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Understanding the connections between race, place, and poverty </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The intersection of race and class </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Analyzing policies and perspectives </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Targeted Universalism </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Systems Thinking </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Serving clients </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Building on your great work and momentum </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Acknowledging implicit biases </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Strategies for addressing the needs of marginalized communities </li></ul></ul>

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Social Space <ul><li>Race is a social space. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>We have fluidity in terms of our racial identity (or, in reality, racial identities.) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Situations affect who you are and how you identify. </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>For example, it may not be until you’re in a room with full of people of a different race that you become truly aware of your own race. </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>The British did not become “white” until Africans became “black.” </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>In order to notice race, society has to create this category/idea of race. After it is created, individuals can negotiate it using the social tools created by society. </li></ul>

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Racial Diversity <ul><li>Racial inclusion, racial diversity, and racial fairness are not the same thing. </li></ul><ul><li>We can talk about diversity in terms of individuals or groups. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Adding individuals can increase diversity, but their true impact on the larger group depends on whether they are trying to fit into a “pre-made” space or whether they are allowed to alter the group space. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Analogy: “immigrant country” – space into which one assimilates vs. “settler country” – being able to “re-make” society </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Racial groups are not monolithic. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Divisions: class, gender, age, etc. </li></ul></ul>

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Valuing Diversity <ul><li>Why do organizations value diversity? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Many would not be able to explain this. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Questions to ask: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Do we view diversity in terms of ‘settlers’ or ‘immigrants’? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Are we still adhering to old norms? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Are we open to re-making our group/organization? </li></ul></ul>

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A Post-Racial Society? (or Not?) <ul><li>The value placed on racial diversity may reflect a larger societal perception of the relevance of race. </li></ul><ul><li>A popular discourse following President Obama’s victory was that his win heralded a post-racial society. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>This conclusion is deeply mistaken. </li></ul></ul>

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A Post-Racial Society? No. <ul><li>Obama’s victory does not change the facts: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Black and Latino children are much more likely than white children to attend high-poverty schools </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>A white man with a criminal record is three times more likely than a black man with a record to receive consideration for a job </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>M inority home-seekers, many with good credit scores, are steered disproportionately to high-cost, sub-prime mortgages, thus devastating their communities in light of the foreclosure crisis </li></ul></ul>By prematurely proclaiming a post-racial status, we ignore the distance we have yet to travel to make this country truly a land of equal opportunity for all, regardless of racial identity.

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Understanding How People are Situated <ul><ul><li>Structural Racialization </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Understanding the connections between race, place, and poverty </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The intersection of race and class </li></ul></ul>

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Structural Racialization <ul><li>Structural racialization addresses inter-institutional arrangements and interactions. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>It refers to the ways in which the joint operation of institutions produce racialized outcomes. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Structural racialization analysis allows for a view of the cumulative effects of institutional arrangements. </li></ul><ul><li>How we arrange structures matters </li></ul><ul><ul><li>The order of the structures </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The timing of the interaction between them </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The relationships that exist between them </li></ul></ul>

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The Web of Opportunity <ul><li>Opportunities in our society are geographically distributed and often clustered throughout metropolitan areas. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>This creates “winner” and “loser” communities, or “high” and “low” opportunity communities. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Fair access to these opportunity structures is limited by various spatial arrangements and policies. </li></ul></ul>

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Place and Life Outcomes <ul><li>Housing, in particular its location, is the primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in our society </li></ul><ul><ul><li>For those living in high poverty neighborhoods, these factors can significantly inhibit life outcomes </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Individual characteristics still matter but so does environment </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Environment can impact individual decision making </li></ul></ul></ul>Fiscal Policies Housing Childcare Employment Education Health Transportation Effective Participation

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Opportunity Matters: Neighborhoods & Access to Opportunity <ul><li>Your environment has a profound impact on your access to opportunity and likelihood of success </li></ul><ul><li>High poverty areas with poor employment, underperforming schools, distressed housing and public health/safety risks depress life outcomes </li></ul><ul><ul><li>A system of disadvantage </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Many manifestations </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Urban, rural, suburban </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>People of color are far more likely to live in opportunity deprived neighborhoods and communities </li></ul>

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The Spatialization of Poverty <ul><li>Structural racialization involves a series of exclusions, often anchored in (and perpetuating) spatial segregation. </li></ul><ul><li>Historically marginalized people of color and the very poor have been spatially isolated from economic, political, educational and technological power via reservations, Jim Crow, Appalachian mountains, ghettos, barrios, and the culture of incarceration. </li></ul>

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Racialization of Poverty <ul><li>African Americans are disproportionately concentrated in low-opportunity neighborhoods </li></ul><ul><li>The racial composition of neighborhoods determines the racial balance in schools, hence segregation </li></ul><ul><li>School segregation has been steadily increasing in the ’90s 1 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Half of all African American students attend a central city district </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Only 1 in 6 white students does </li></ul></ul>Source 1: David Rusk. Trends in School Segregation in Divided we Fail: Coming Together through Public School Choice. The Report of the Century Foundation Task Force on the Common School. 2002.

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Is it getting better? <ul><li>Many feel that this racialization of concentrated poverty has improved in recent years. </li></ul><ul><li>In 1960, African-American families in poverty were 3.8 times more likely to be concentrated in high-poverty neighborhoods than poor whites. </li></ul><ul><li>In 2000, they were 7.3 times more likely. </li></ul>Fact Sheet from the Opportunity Agenda, Housing Neighborhoods and Opportunity. http://www.opportunityagenda.org/site/c.mwL5KkN0LvH/b.1433711/k.B7BA/Housing_Fact_Sheet.htm

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The Cumulative Impacts of Spatial, Racial and Opportunity Segregation Neighborhood Segregation School Segregation Racial stigma, other psychological impacts Job segregation Impacts on community power and individual assets Impacts on Educational Achievement Exposure to crime; arrest Transportation limitations and other inequitable public services Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at: http://faculty.washington.edu/reskin/ Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities Impacts on Health

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Barriers to Fair Housing: The Web of Housing Challenges Housing Challenges Subsidized Housing Policies Discriminatory And Unfair Lending A Housing Market That Does Not Serve the Population Racial Steering And Discrimination Exclusionary Zoning

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Application of SR Model: Thompson v. HUD <ul><li>In 1995, six families living in Baltimore public housing filed suit on behalf of 14,000 other low-income families. </li></ul><ul><li>In 2005, a federal court ruled that HUD had violated Title VIII of the Fair Housing Act by failing to affirmatively further fair housing. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>HUD had effectively restricted low-income minority families to segregated neighborhoods in the central city. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>During the 1990s, 89% of public housing units developed with HUD’s support in the Baltimore Region were in Baltimore City. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The majority – more than 67%– of the City’s Section 8 voucher holders live in census tracts that are 70% - 100% Black. </li></ul></ul>

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SR and the Law <ul><li>Title VII </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Disparate impacts </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>“ Even where an employer is not motivated by discriminatory intent, Title VII prohibits an the employer from using a facially neutral employment practice that has an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class.” </li></ul></ul></ul>http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html

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Integration Into Opportunity <ul><li>Rethink fair housing… </li></ul><ul><li>Segregation is more than just physical isolation; it’s also isolation from opportunity structures </li></ul><ul><li>Not just integration but integration into opportunity </li></ul><ul><li>Inclusive fair housing means access to good schools, jobs, doctors, child care, transportation, parks, and the civic fabric </li></ul>

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Opening Pathways to Opportunity <ul><li>What happens when we affirmatively connect people to opportunity? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>After implementing economically diverse magnets schools in Wake County, NC, African American student test scores doubled </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Children in public housing who moved to the suburbs as part of Chicago’s Gautreaux program were twice as likely to attend college (in comparison to their urban peers) (Rosenbaum) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Despite the flaws in the implementation of MTO, many participants experienced substantial psychological benefits </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Moving to opportunity for boys resulted in a 25% decline in depressive/anxiety or dependency problems (2005) </li></ul></ul></ul></ul>

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The Intersection of Race and Class <ul><li>Another part of understanding how people are situated involves reflecting on the intersection of race and class. </li></ul><ul><li>Class is often used as a proxy for race. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Less controversial; less divisive </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Among the problems with using class as a proxy: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Using a class lens is too narrow. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Class is used to evade the race issue rather than address it. </li></ul></ul>

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The Intersection of Race and Class <ul><li>Race left a lasting imprint on how we perceive class. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>For example, the white face on the suburban middle class allowed for stereotyping of the “Black welfare queen” </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Racial associations and assumptions are made with certain occupations – an example of class and race interacting. </li></ul><ul><li>Both race and class are composites. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Multidimensional </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Race and class give meaning socially and institutionally. </li></ul>

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Intrasectionality <ul><ul><li>The self is an intersubjective viewpoint. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Our own understandings of ourselves interact with the views that others hold about us. </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Multiple selves </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>“ We are all androgynous, not only because we are all born of a woman impregnated by the seed of a man but because each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other -- male in female, female in male, white in black and black in white. We are a part of each other. Many of my countrymen appear to find this fact exceedingly inconvenient and even unfair, and so, very often, do I. But none of us can do anything about it.” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>~James Baldwin </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li> 1924-1987 </li></ul></ul>

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Uneven Effects of the Current Recession <ul><li>The current recession has affected everyone – but not all to the same degree. </li></ul><ul><li>Although the U.S. has been in a recession for more than a year, people of color have been in a recession for nearly five years and have entered a depression during the current economic crisis. </li></ul><ul><li>Although the black poverty rate fell 8.5% from 1989 to 2000, the African American family poverty rate increased 2.8% from 2000 to 2007. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Poverty rates for Hispanic families grew .5% from 2000 to 2007. The Hispanic family poverty rate (19.7%) is roughly twice that of the overall poverty rate (9.8%). </li></ul></ul>

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This ratio was at a record high of 63.5% in 2000. Once the 2001 recession and weak economic recovery hit, these gains were lost and have yet to be recovered. Austin, Algernon. “What a Recession Means for Black America.” EPI Issue Brief # 241. 18 Jan. 2008.

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Learning From Our Mistakes? <ul><li>If we fail to pay attention to populations and the resources that communities possess, we are likely to repeat the mistakes of the New Deal. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>White Americans may benefit disproportionately </li></ul></ul><ul><li>How do we avoid the New Deal mistakes? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>We must be intentional. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Policies should be targeted and programs should be structured so that they reach certain populations and communities. </li></ul></ul>

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We Need A New Paradigm <ul><li>Targeted policies alone are not desirable because they appear to show favoritism toward a certain group, thus stigmatizing them. </li></ul><ul><li>Universal policies alone are not useful. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>They fail to account for the fact that people are situated differently in the economic and social landscape of society </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>“ Universal” policies are often based on a non-universal standard </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Ex: Social Security: able-bodied white males working outside the home full-time for pay </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Thus… Targeted Universalism </li></ul>

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Group A Group B If the universal program affects those in red, Group B would seemingly benefit more than Group A. Universal Program

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Group A Group B The universal program affected everyone in red, but Group B is still constrained by the boxes. Universal Program

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Targeted Universalism <ul><li>This approach supports the needs of the particular while reminding us that we are all part of the same social fabric. </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Universal, yet captures how people are differently situated </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Inclusive, yet targets those who are most marginalized </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Example goal: Every school as a performing school </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>What does each school need to get there? </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>What does each student, family, teacher, community need? </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>What are their strengths and constraints? </li></ul></ul></ul></ul>

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Targeted Universalism <ul><li>Targeted Universalism recognizes racial disparities and the importance of eradicating them, while acknowledging their presence within a larger inequitable, institutional framework </li></ul><ul><li>Targeted universalism is a common framework through which to pursue justice </li></ul><ul><ul><li>A model which recognizes our linked fate </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>A model where we all grow together </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>A model where we embrace collective solutions </li></ul></ul>

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Ex: Economic Stimulus Package <ul><li>The economic stimulus package fails to directly account for race. </li></ul><ul><li>Yet, race is a key component of many major economic issues. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Ex: Subprime/Foreclosure crisis: </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>People of color are more than three times as likely as whites to have subprime mortgages. </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Borrowers of color were more than 30 percent more likely to receive a higher-rate loan than white borrowers, even after accounting for differences in risk. </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Besides considering race-sensitive design, </li></ul><ul><li>we must be concerned about the impacts. </li></ul>Rogers, Christy. “Subprime Loans, Foreclosure, and the Credit Crisis – A Primer.” Dec. 2008.

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System Interactions Source: Barbara Reskin. http://faculty.uwashington.edu/reskin/ We must pay attention to how people are situated by looking at multiple indicators and the relationships that exist between those indicators.

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Structural Racialization & Systems Thinking <ul><li>Courts have used a systems perspective. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Gaston County v. United States – North Carolina sought to reinstate a literacy test as a qualification for voting. The Court found a violation of the Voting Rights Act because segregated schools &quot;deprived its black residents of equal educational opportunities, which in turn deprived them of an equal chance to pass a literacy test.&quot; </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>An apparently impartial literacy test was found to be a violation of the Voting Rights Act when one examined the institutional relationship between segregated education and voting restrictions. </li></ul></ul>

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Serving MLAC’s Clients <ul><ul><li>Building on your great work and momentum </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Acknowledging the role of implicit bias </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Working collaboratively on strategies for addressing the needs of marginalized communities </li></ul></ul>

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The recently completed opportunity mapping project in Massachusetts highlights the unique challenges facing MLAC’s clients. These maps provide the context for analyzing fair housing policies and a variety of other social issues.

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Why It Is Difficult to Talk About Race? <ul><li>U.S. history of violence, repression, and injustice toward people of color </li></ul><ul><li>Feelings of resentment, guilt, and hostility </li></ul><ul><li>Fear of stigmatizing groups and creating self-fulfilling prophecies </li></ul><ul><li>Lack of information about consequences of racial inequality </li></ul><ul><li>Failure to actively envision a “true Democracy” </li></ul><ul><li>Fear of being labeled a racist </li></ul><ul><li>Lack of practice! </li></ul><ul><li>Implicit bias (unconscious) </li></ul>

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Talking About Race - (Don’t) <ul><li>Techniques to avoid : </li></ul><ul><li>Present disparities only </li></ul><ul><li>Frame action as robbing Peter to pay Paul </li></ul><ul><li>Separate out people in need from “everybody else” </li></ul><ul><li>Glide over real fears, shared suffering, or the fact that people are often internally divided </li></ul><ul><li>Dismiss the importance of individual efforts </li></ul>

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Talking About Race - (Do) <ul><li>Frame the discussion using the norms & values of the audience – anchor to their narratives </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ All God’s Children” video: Click Here </li></ul></ul><ul><li>In the story you tell, make sure everyone can see themselves in the story (“us,” not just “those people”) </li></ul><ul><li>Emphasize shared, deep values </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ Team USA” video: Click Here </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Acknowledge that individualism is important – but that the healthiest individual is nurtured by a community invested in everyone’s success </li></ul><ul><li>Propose policies that are universal and targeted </li></ul>

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Perceiving Race <ul><li>Racial categorization occurs automatically, regardless of any efforts to divert attention from race. </li></ul><ul><li>Within moments of perceiving someone, we automatically judge that person in terms of in-group favoritism </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Is that person is an “us” or a “them”? </li></ul></ul><ul><li>We unconsciously think about race even when we do not explicitly discuss it. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Elephant in the room video: Click here </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Drew Westen’s The Political Brain </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Implicit Association Test </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Implicit thoughts can overpower our explicit positions </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Implicit Bias <ul><li>We unconsciously think about race even when we do not explicitly discuss it. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Implicit thoughts can overpower our explicit positions. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>People have multiple networks that may be activated without our awareness. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Depending on the situation, one network becomes dominant over the others. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Even though we may fight them, implicit biases reside within us. </li></ul>

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A Transformative Dialogue Around Our Linked Fate <ul><li>Too often, we envision race as a system that separates groups from each other with durable boundaries around each group. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>This view supports the notion that disparities impacting one group have no impact on other groups. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Talking about race creates an opportunity to expose and illuminate the “ linked fate ” that is shared by all Americans - how inequality for some groups impacts the entire society. </li></ul>Inequality in educational opportunity Low-performing inner-city schools Reduced competitiveness in the global economy Negative economic consequences for ALL AMERICANS

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A Transformative Dialogue: Bring Everyone to the Table <ul><li>Too often, issues that touch on race and social justice are perceived as “Black issues” or “White issues.” </li></ul><ul><li>In the U.S., issues about racial equality, opportunity, and social justice are fundamentally issues about Democracy . </li></ul><ul><li>Everyone has a stake in guaranteeing that Democratic principles are fully implemented in the society. </li></ul><ul><li>So, everyone is a stakeholder in the transformative dialogue on race. </li></ul>

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Client Relationships <ul><li>We need to craft an appropriate set of relationships and conditions and avoid romanticizing “the other.” </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Slave/master relationship: never fully human relationship because there would always be a power imbalance between the two </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The Bigger Thomas story (Richard Wright) </li></ul></ul>

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Encouraging Full Democratic Membership <ul><li>How do we engage others with dignity? </li></ul><ul><li>What is freedom? </li></ul><ul><li>What characterizes an active member of a democratic society? </li></ul><ul><li>How do you measure social inclusion? </li></ul><ul><li>What blocks membership? </li></ul><ul><li>Who makes meaning? </li></ul><ul><li>What are the ‘everyday’ politics? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ You know, even if 40 percent of the people in a community are poor, it means 60 percent are not. So we have to ask ourselves, what are those 60 percent doing and thinking? And in the case of these chronically-poor places, my experience and others' is that they're distancing themselves from the poor rather than looking for ways to bring them into the Boy Scouts or into the after-school program or into the same church as the more middle-class folks…”* </li></ul></ul>*Quote from “Why Poverty Persists in Appalachia,” PBS interview with Cynthia Duncan (author of Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/countryboys/readings/duncan.html

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Exclusion From Decision Making <ul><li>Bringing people into structures that formerly excluded them may not be enough </li></ul><ul><li>Message is: individual is not properly “negotiating” the ladder when the ladder is too narrow or long …and we’re climbing alone </li></ul><ul><li>Insensitive, perhaps hostile structural arrangements </li></ul><ul><li>Need to re-think structures themselves </li></ul>

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The Margin & the Center <ul><li>What’s the relationship between the margin and the center? How do we change this relationship? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>We can’t change the role of women without changing the role of men. They co-constitute each other. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>In Legal Services, there’s a power dynamic in which the powerless may be expected to make changes. We need to talk about changing the center, not just changing the margin. </li></ul></ul>

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What can Legal Services do? <ul><li>Engage in diversity training </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Not just typical trainings, but deep discussions in which personal viewpoints are openly addressed and critical feedback is provided by colleagues </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Fully understand how race really works </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Truly comprehend why diversity matters rather than running the risk of only paying it lip-service </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Work to create community change </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Beyond zealously advocating for your client, think about how each case can produce community change </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Let this influence how you articulate the case, how you utilize the media, etc. </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Intervention Strategies for Building Opportunity Communities <ul><ul><li>Adopt an opportunity-based approach to housing advocacy </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Support both in-place and mobility-based strategies to affirmatively provide access to opportunity </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Adopt a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to advocacy </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Address not only personal and institutional racism, but also structural racism and racialization </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Reflect on the unique challenges and opportunities each community presents </li></ul></ul>Section 5 Work Toward Transformative Change

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Privilege <ul><li>Privilege comes in many different forms – race, class, status, etc. </li></ul><ul><li>It is possible to have some kinds of privilege and not others </li></ul><ul><ul><li>i.e., Someone may lack race privilege but still possess educational and class privilege </li></ul></ul><ul><li>How we use that privilege is important </li></ul>

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Privilege and Institutional Arrangements <ul><li>Privilege is sorted through institutional arrangements </li></ul><ul><li>Institutional arrangements are never neutral </li></ul><ul><ul><li>There is a tendency to favor one group over another </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Examples: </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Holidays in the United States are arranged in a way that is sensitive to Christian beliefs, but not necessarily inclusive of other religions </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Daycare is structured in a gendered way that creates advantages and disadvantages to certain groups </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Which parent usually has to take off of work to care for a sick child? </li></ul></ul></ul></ul>

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White Privilege and the Organization of Structures <ul><li>Without critical examination, the system can appear to be just and fair, perhaps even neutral towards race. </li></ul><ul><li>Often unbeknownst to them, whites inherit and possess many benefits that are often unacknowledged and/or taken for granted. </li></ul><ul><li>Interestingly, the norm of whiteness is strong enough that the privilege of whiteness may not even be perceived by people of color. </li></ul>

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Recognizing White Privilege <ul><li>“ In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.” </li></ul><ul><li>~Peggy McIntosh – “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” </li></ul>

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Defining White Privilege <ul><li>White privilege refers to special advantages, rights, or unearned benefits that whites enjoy simply due to the color of their skin that other groups do not receive </li></ul><ul><ul><li>A white person does not need to be a racist to benefit from white privilege </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The recipient of white privilege may not even be aware that s/he received it </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>These privileges are passively acquired </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Is one person’s privilege predicated on others’ lack of privilege? </li></ul></ul>

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A Few Manifestations of White Privilege <ul><li>Spatial and residential segregation </li></ul><ul><li>The appearance, demeanor, and choices of a non-white being considered “representative of his/her race” </li></ul><ul><li>Minority students are less likely to be placed in advanced or accelerated classes </li></ul><ul><li>“ Flesh color” Band-Aids are typically light beige in color, thus reflecting a norm of white skin tones </li></ul>

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White Privilege and the Organization of Structures <ul><li>&quot;The reality is [in] every aspect of life -- economic, social, political -- white people benefit from the way the system is organized and black people experience deficiency.” </li></ul><ul><li>~ Paula Rothenberg, author of White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism </li></ul>

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Privilege and Institutions <ul><li>The dynamics of privilege are not static; they change by situation and across time </li></ul><ul><li>We need a literacy of institutions and cultural meanings </li></ul><ul><li>We also need to understand how these meanings are transmitted </li></ul><ul><li>Institutions may not be neutral, but they can be inclusive </li></ul>